"Sah-nee! Sah-nee!"
Sunny woke up with a groan as his phone rang, then smiled when it went silent after a few seconds, and turned over with a soft sigh.
"Sah-nee! Sah-nee!"
Sunny groaned again, this time much louder.
Why did he set his ringtone to be so obnoxious?
He slowly turned back over and unthinkingly reached for the phone, mindlessly for a few seconds. He found it, pressed the answer button, and lazily pressed it to his ear.
"Hello?"
"Sunny? Are you up? I've been trying to call you for a while."
Sunny turned over in his bed.
"Hey, Miss Song, and yes, I am, but I don't want to be,"
The woman laughed over the phone.
"I get it, just remember that we're having that party today,"
"Oh yeah, when is it starting?"
"It started an hour ago, dear."
Sunny shot up in his head.
"Shit! I forgot!"
Ki Song chided him gently.
"Language, dear,"
"Right, sorry, ma'am, I have to get dressed! I'll see you soon!"
"Alright,"
Sunny hung up and practically jumped out of his bed and grabbed a fresh pair of dark grey pants and a black and grey flannel and speed walked to the shower. He put the clothes in the sink, hopped into the shower for 7 minutes, then stepped out, dried off, and put them on. He grabbed a coat and a pair of boots from his closet, went downstairs into his living room, and looked out the window to see a blizzard outside.
'Damn, I'll be able to make it there if I drive carefully,'
With that in mind, he went back upstairs to grab a scarf and a black winter hat and came down to put on his boots. Once they were on, he stepped outside into a foot of snow. He groaned, made his way to his car, and tried to open the door several times before it finally opened. Sunny nearly fell back from how hard he yanked the handle to get it open. His luck soon went down the drain when he tried to start his car; it sputtered a few times.
"Come on, work with me,"
Sunny shivered in the cold for a moment, tried again, and got the same result. He decided to stop, got out, and trudged his way back to his home. Once he was inside, he stood in the living room before pulling out his phone and opening a ridesharing app. He looked through the driver reviews that caught his interest, given the high star rating.
"This driver was the best I've ever had! He was so handsome and funny and handsome, did I already type that? Oh well! Five stars!"
"This driver made a one-hour drive feel like one second! He was amazing and very entertaining! He even gave me a gift!"
"The driver is very good at driving."
"You know, I was skeptical when the driver didn't use a GPS, but it turned out that he knew every street like the back of his hand!"
Sunny nodded at the high-rated reviews, paid the driver thirty dollars for the distance on the app, and waited by the door. A few minutes later, a white car pulled into the driveway and honked twice. Sunny got into the back seat, where the driver turned around, revealing a young man with a thin face, black hair, and black eyes. He wore a thin black coat, a baseball cap, and a crystal monocle on his right eye and smiled gently as Sunny met his eyes.
"Greetings, my name is Amon, I'll be your driver. Where will you be going?"
Sunny smiled in return.
"Nice to meet you, Amon. I'm Sunless, and I'll be going to the Valor Mansion."
Amon smiled.
"Oh my, how fancy,"
Sunny nodded with a smile.
"How much will it be?"
The monocle-wearing young man put on his hat and smiled again.
"Thirty soli for the distance,"
Sunny pulled out his wallet and handed him a twenty-dollar bill and a ten-dollar bill before stopping and raising an eyebrow.
"Don't you mean thirty dollars?"
The young man smiled and tapped his nose.
"Is that what it's called here? Ahh, my apologies, yes, thirty dollars."
Sunny nodded and handed him the money.
"It's okay, are you new here?"
Amon took the money and smiled.
"Yes, you could say that. Thank you, now make yourself comfortable, I'll get you there in one or two pieces, I promise."
Sunny leaned back in his seat with a smile.
"Take your time, I'm in no rush. Actually, I feel like we've met before. Do I know you from somewhere?"
Amon smiled.
"Yes, we met on Iron Cross Street,"
Sunny laughed at the joke; he appreciated the man's strange sense of humor and nodded.
"I see,"
Amon adjusted his baseball cap with his right hand, pressed down on his monocle with his left, and smiled at Sunny, then softly laughed.
"May I ask what you're going to do at the mansion of the richest family in the city?"
"I'm going to a party they're having."
"How wonderful to hear. I love parties, but between you and me, I'll admit that I'm not the best driver. I'm not even sure how I got my driver's license."
Sunny laughed at the man's joke again.
"Ah, I'm sure you're not that bad, I mean, you're good enough to have your own taxi business."
Amon laughed as well as he adjusted his rearview mirror and met his eyes in the reflection and smiled at him.
"Thank you, Sunless, but I'm serious, in fact, I've crashed several times."
Sunny's smile slightly wavered as he laughed again.
"Oh? Did you also steal your driver's license from someone?"
"Yes, actually, I did, how did you know?"
Sunny went pale as a ghost, and he felt his heart drop to his stomach.
"I…I didn't!"
The monocle-wearing driver smiled at his outburst.
"Make sure to put on your seatbelt. Wouldn't want you flying out the front window like my last customer, heh-heh."
Sunny immediately tried to open the door, but it was locked.
"Let me out, you goddamn lunatic!"
Amon gently smiled as he pulled out of the driveway and onto the road.
"Calm down, my friend, I'm only messing with you! It was actually my last three customers, maybe I'll go for seven, heh heh, after all, it's a lucky number in this world, isn't it? Seven gods, seven daemons, seven realms."
What was this guy talking about? His driver was a complete lunatic!
Immediately, the sound of tires screeching filled his ears as the monocle maniac slammed his foot on the gas pedal and sped off and weaved between traffic as Sunny yelled at the top of his lungs.
"YOU'RE GOING TO GET US KILLED, YOU MANIAC!"
Amon laughed as he sped through the streets with every traffic light somehow being green.
"I'll get you there in no time, Sunless."
"Where?! The afterlife?!"
Amon turned around as he was driving and shrugged at him, his black eyes shining with genuine mirth.
"Sure, why not? Heh heh,"
This guy was out of his fucking mind!
Sunny gripped his seatbelt with a wildly beating heart at the man's carelessness.
"Turn around, you fool! Pay attention to the goddamn road!"
Amon waved him off as he almost hit a family of three crossing the street and turned back into his seat as he passed them, unaware of what transpired.
"Oh, please, I know these streets like the back of my hand. We'll be fine, you're lucky my brother Adam isn't here, he's terribly boring and so serious."
"You nearly ran over a family!"
"What family?"
"The one behind us!"
Amon looked behind him and shrugged.
"Oh, them? They were in the way,"
"The traffic light was red!"
Amon smiled.
"I'm colorblind, heh heh,"
"You're joking,"
Amon ignored his words and lifted his console, pulled out a crystal monocle, then tossed it behind with his right hand while looking at the road.
"Here, have a monocle, it'll calm you down."
Sunny caught it with an outraged look.
"What?! Why would I want this?"
"It's my gift to you for being such an entertaining customer. I haven't laughed this much in a long time."
Sunny closed his eyes and took a deep breath when suddenly images of cars moving backwards, people screaming in fright, and multiple tunnels simultaneously flashed into his mind, sending him forward into the back of the passenger seat and feeling motion sick.
The man's joyous voice reached his ears.
"We're here, sorry about the bumpy ride, heh heh,"
'W-what the hell? Are we already here? I've only been in the car for two minutes, and the drive is supposed to be forty!'
Did he pass out?
Sunny shook his head and trembled in his seat, took deep breaths, and shivered while pulling out his wallet.
"I-uh-I don't think I paid you, despite you being a complete lunatic, you still got me here in one piece as you promised. How much is it for the ride?"
Amon smiled.
"Thirty dollars,"
Sunny took out a few bills and quickly handed them to him. The monocle-wearing maniac immediately stepped out of the car, walked around to where Sunny was sitting, and opened the door.
Sunny immediately got out with a gasp, his breathing frosting in the frigid air before taking a deep breath and throwing up on the ground.
"Thank god,"
He could feel Amon looking at him, amusement clear in his voice.
"You're missing a few."
Sunny groaned and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Please just go away,"
Amon nodded with a smile.
"Very well,"
Sunny turned around and began walking away before he stopped in place as his thoughts eluded him.
'Did I pay the maniac already?'
He turned around and pulled out his wallet.
"I don't think I paid you, despite you being a complete lunatic, you still got me here in one piece as you promised. How much is it for the ride?"
Amon smiled.
"Thirty dollars,"
Sunny nodded and handed him a few bills.
The man got back into the driver's seat and rolled down the passenger window when he closed the door.
Sunny turned around again and stopped again as if his thoughts were pulled from his mind.
'Did I pay the maniac already?'
He didn't remember, so he went to turn around before stopping and slightly frowning. He shook his head, turned around, and pulled out his wallet.
"I don't think I paid you, despite you being a complete lunatic, you still got me here in one piece as you promised. How much is it for the ride?"
The monocle-wearing man smiled, and his smile, once contiguous, suddenly looked punchable.
"Thirty dollars,"
For some reason, Sunny was getting a sense of deja vu and shook his head with a sudden look of anger.
"All the reviews said that you were the best driver they've ever had!"
Amon laughed as he leaned against his car.
"Oh, those? All those reviews are from me; those are all my alt accounts. I left those reviews about myself."
"You what?!"
Amon nodded, took the monocle off his right eye, and handed it to him with a smile.
"Yes, indeed, no one has been able to review because they never survived the ride. You're the first, so congratulations, here, have my monocle."
With a look of fright, Sunny smacked the monocle out of his hand; it landed on the ground, cracking on impact.
"I don't want your damn monocle, I want you to leave!"
Amon turned his head and silently looked at the monocle with a smile, then looked back at Sunny for a long while. The man then slowly reached into his pocket, pulled out another crystal monocle, and put it on his right eye.
"If you say so,"
Sunny stared in shock.
"How…How many of those things do you have?"
Amon shrugged.
"As many as I want,"
Sunny shivered from the cold and was about to speak before he frowned at something he was going to say, but suddenly forgot.
'Did I already pay the maniac driver?'
He turned around and pulled out his wallet.
"I don't think I paid you, despite you being a complete lunatic, you still got me here in one piece as you promised. How much is it going to be for the ride?"
Amon smiled widely.
"Thirty dollars."
Amon took the money with a smile, got back into his car, closed the door, and rolled down the passenger window.
"Thank you kindly. Oh yeah, I should mention that you already paid me on the app, and then after you got in the car, just before you got out, and after you got out. But thank you for the extra money, I'll consider it as a tip."
Sunny's eyes went wide as plates, and he checked his wallet to find he was right. He was missing more than a few bills. He frowned deeply and immediately heard the sound of tires screeching as the man drove off into the icy streets with a laugh.
"You scammer! Get back here!"
How was that even possible?! How did he not remember?!
"Damnation!"
Sunny shivered in the cold and decided to forget about the maniac scammer, then began walking towards the entrance gate, where guards usually stood, but because of the blizzard, they weren't there. So Sunny instead waved at the camera at the gate before a man's voice answered.
"Identify yourself,"
Sunny briefly removed his scarf and uncovered his face for the camera.
"It's me, Sebastian, it's Sunless."
The gate immediately creaked open, and the older man's voice resounded through the speaker.
"Oh, please come in, then, young man; it's freezing out there."
Sunny thanked the man and slowly made his way to the mansion. He walked past the snow-covered lawn and rapidly knocked on the door once he made it to the porch. A few seconds later, the door opened, and he was met by a handsome older man towering over him. The man lowered his gaze a significant amount and his steel grey eyes bored into Sunny's onyx ones. The man had an emotionless gaze before he broke out in a wide smile as he clapped Sunny on the right shoulder.
"Sunless, it's good to see you, boy! Everyone has been wondering where you've been."
Sunny wobbled on the spot from the impact but smiled nonetheless.
"It's good to see you, too, Uncle Anvil. Sorry, I'm late."
Anvil lifted his head and looked past Sunny as he drifted towards his driveway, and he looked around in curiosity. He lowered his head again to meet Sunny's eyes and raised an eyebrow.
"Where's your car?"
Sunny sighed.
"It wouldn't start, I had to call an Uber and almost died trying to make it here because the driver was a complete lunatic."
Anvil laughed, but Sunny was dead serious.
"I always enjoyed your sense of humor, Sunless. You could've called Morgan to pick you up; you know you've always been her favorite. But never mind that, come in, come in, I'm sure you're freezing."
Anvil closed the door behind him, and Sunny barely took two steps into the mansion before he was pulled into a crushing hug, then let go to be met by a beautiful older woman with vermillion eyes and a kind smile.
"Hello, Sunless dear, I'm glad to see you made it here safely in this awful weather. How are you?"
"Hey, Aunt Gwyn, I'm alive. I had a terrible driver; he was a complete lunatic."
The woman held a look of surprise.
"Oh goodness, well, I'm glad you made it here safe!"
He saw a captivating woman take purposeful strides towards him and frowned when she stood before him.
"Sunless,"
Sunny forced a smile. Song Eunbin was the only sister who, for whatever reason, openly disliked him. He wondered what things would be like if she didn't dislike him. Would they be friends? Probably not.
"Eunbin, how are you?"
The beautiful woman nodded curtly.
"I'm fine,"
"Any luck on finding your birth parents yet?"
She shook her head.
"No, are you going to keep trying to make small talk?"
"Yes, I am, so long as you don't mind."
Hel approached them with a smile, wrapping an arm around Sunny's shoulder, pulling him into a side hug.
"I'm sure they're out there somewhere, Bin, and cut him some slack, huh? You're far too harsh on him. How can you dislike someone with a face like his? Sure, he's not my type, but he's certainly a looker."
Eunbin's frown lessened.
"I don't know, Hel, I just don't understand where they could have disappeared to and why they would just up and leave me. And I would be less harsh if he stopped being so insufferable."
A husky voice spoke from behind Hel as she let go of Sunny.
"Hel is right, Bin, we will find them eventually, and I know they didn't just leave you for no good reason."
Eunbin pursed her lips.
"We've been looking for them for three months now, Shan. Four months now because my birthday was a few days ago."
"Have some faith, sister. We put fliers out everywhere,"
Sunny looked at Seishan, who smiled at him. Despite Sunny thinking for the longest time that Seishan, or perhaps Eunbin, was the oldest, it was a shock to him when he learned that neither of them was. It was actually Revel; Seishan had just taken on a motherly role between the sisters. After Song Eunbin's parents went missing when she was seven, she was dropped off at the orphanage where she met Hel, Revel, and Seishan but then they came back and disappeared again multiple times. They recently disappeared a few months ago.
The older woman pulled him into a hug.
"Hey, Sunny, I'm glad you made it."
Sunny hugged her back and smiled as he pulled away.
"Hey Shan, how are you? Where's Kai and Mordret?"
"I'm good, and they're still trying to get here, they just picked up Cassie."
His thoughts were interrupted by a joyous voice in his ear and an arm wrapped around his shoulder. He saw a woman with dark hair, an average face, dark eyes, and a bright smile standing beside him.
"Come on, Bin, you're far too mean towards him; he's amazing company and a decent cook."
Eunbin's frown deepened again.
"He nearly burned down our kitchen."
Silence shrugged.
"Accidents happen."
Eunbin's frown turned into a scowl.
"He was trying to make pancakes."
Silence shrugged again.
"Rookie mistake,"
"They were from the box. Silence, how do you mess something like that up?"
"Hey, no one's perfect,"
Eunbin scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"You pamper him too much,"
Silence smiled.
"Always will,"
Sunny smiled at her.
"Thank you, silence."
Sunny didn't call her by her real name as he had grown used to calling her by her nickname. She earned the nickname Silent Stalker for sneaking around the mansion unnoticed and scaring her sisters when they were children. The woman had taken the shortest time to warm up to him, as it had taken her five days to initiate a proper conversation. Ever since then, she had become protective of him and treated him like a little brother. She was also the sweetest towards him whenever he was around them.
The older woman ruffled his hair with a rare smile reserved for those closest to her; anyone else outside the mansion was met with her cold, harsh exterior.
"No problem, sorry about her, Sunny, you know, and I both know she enjoys having you around; she doesn't want to admit it."
Sunny laughed, pushed her hand out of his hair, and fixed it.
"Hey, Silence."
A deep voice called to him from the kitchen.
"Is Sunny finally here? I thought I heard his voice,"
Sunny looked over and saw a tall, handsome man in his thirties, with tan skin and amber-almost golden eyes that shone with mirth, his black hair falling to his shoulders. He wore a red apron with a friendly smile on his face and held a tray of crescent moon-shaped cookies in his hands. He walked towards Sunny before stopping before him and ruffling his hair.
"It's good to see you again, boy! Do you want a cookie?"
Sunny smiled widely in return and took one.
"It's good to see you as well, Uncle Aster, and yes, I do."
Asterion smiled and then gave him a worried look.
"You're not freezing, are you? I'm sure there's a heater somewhere in this mansion. I'll find one, I'll grab you a few blankets too."
Sunny held up his hand to stop the man from moving.
"No, no, it's fine, Uncle Aster, I'm not freezing."
Asterion stared at him, looking unconvinced, before nodding and walking past him to look out the window, his eyes squinting to see past the blizzard.
"Where's your car?"
"The car died in the middle of my driveway and wouldn't start, and it sputtered out in the cold. I had to get a ride and got a maniac of a driver, but never mind that, I'll have to get it towed back to my house when this is over."
Asterion waved him off with a scoff.
"Forget about that rust bucket, boy, I'll buy you a new one,"
Sunny stared in shock.
"Are you serious?"
Asterion nodded with a grin.
"Dead serious, just tell me what color you want,"
Anvil shook his head with a smile.
"Even though they're adults now, you still spoil these brats rotten, Aster,"
Asterion gave his friend a sheepish smile.
"Ah, I can't help it, Vale. I've been away from everyone for far too long while in space on a mission, and I feel bad. Now who's hungry? I know I am."
I'm back, woohoo! :) I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the many slice-of-life moments in volume 1. Enjoy these precious moments in Mirage City, too. After all, nothing lasts forever…